Latin quota in the best 2019 music albums

Last week, the traditional official lists that summarize the best of the 2019 New York Times began to come out. Music critic Jon Pareles was responsible for writing and curating the list of the best music albums of this 2019.

Although most are sung in English, the albums chosen by the critic have sounds of varied genre originating from different parts of the world. Latin rhythms, of course, could not be missed. We highlight here two of the albums that belong to the list that Pareles decided to headline "The Triumph Of The Weird" and that he may not know and should listen before the end of the year.

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Africa Speaks, Santana

It was released in the middle of this year but we already knew, since March, the first single from the album: "Los invisibles". The American rock band Santana, led by Mexican guitarist Carlos Santana, wanted to make a mix of Latin and traditional rock sounds with some of African folklore and hence the album title.

The majority of the songs were recorded in a single take, reason why the disc was delayed in recording hardly ten days. It has the collaboration of Cindy Blackman, Santana's wife, on drums and the Spanish singer Buika. The disc has eleven tracks and two Bonus Tracks, for a total of 13 songs. Some are in English and others in Spanish, to account for the diversity of origins of these sounds. One of the must-sees this year.

Almadura, iLe

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Her name is Ileana Mercedes Cabra Joglar and although she may not know her by name, she has most likely heard her voice. Better known by her stage name iLe, the Puerto Rican began her musical career as the female voice of the Calle 13 group next to her Resident and Visitor colleagues. After the dissolution of the group, iLe has formed a solo career. First, in 2016 she released his first solo album called Ilevitable, which was well received by critics and gave her a Latin Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.

Now, this year, she has returned with Almadura, her second studio album. The album title is a word game between "hard soul" and the way in which a Puerto Rican would pronounce the word "armadura" (armor). On the album, she collaborates with the acclaimed pianist Eddie Palmieri, to whom many successes of Latin salsa and jazz are due.

The lyrics of the songs are hard and political and address issues of gender and Puerto Rican current affairs. It is one of the must-sees of this year, not only to understand what the music of the Caribbean is going but also about the concerns of this generation.